[RESEARCH: SENSORY INPUT & PROXIMITY]

SENSORY INPUT

Sensory processing disorder

is a condition in which the brain has trouble receiving and responding to information that comes in through the senses. Some people with sensory processing disorder are oversensitive to things in their environment. Common sounds may be painful or overwhelming

Augmented reality (AR)

is a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are "augmented" by computer-generated or extracted real-world sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. It is related to a more general concept called computer-mediated reality, in which a view of reality is modified (possibly even diminished rather than augmented) by a computer

How can we use this technology?

We could use augmented reality to help control the environment of the classroom, for neurodiverse people. We would be able to change the environment to help people.

https://www.visionaware.org/blog/visionaware-blog/google-glass-applications-for-blind-and-visually-impaired-users/12

https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/16/oxsight-uses-augmented-reality-to-aide-the-visually-impaired/

Memento

Automatically recites notes when the blind or visually impaired user faces, or looks at, a recognizable scene. To use Memento, sighted users must first record descriptions or commentary about environmental features or a room setup. When a blind or visually impaired person using Google Glass approaches the same spot, Google Glass will recognize the feature or scene and read back the pre-recorded commentary.

Enchroma:

These glasses filter light in way that aids red-green color blind people to see a wider range of color. Articl

fashionable eyeglasses
color spectrum diagram

OxSight

AR technology that works as a hearing aid for the blind. Product Uses sight the user already has and ads on with different types of technologies. Increases contrast so people who have some sight can see better.

Google OpenGlass Project - Question-Answer

Allows blind and visually impaired users to use Google Glass to take a picture with a question attached, which is sent to "the cloud" for answers from sighted respondents via Twitter or Amazon's Mechanical Turk platform. The answer is read aloud to the user through the bone conduction speaker that is part of the Google Glass headset.

Google: Project Soli

Capabilities

  • Can sense the tiniest motions, volume knob, slider, scrolling, etc. Uses haptic feedback. Has high positional accuracy.
  • Radar can work through materials and can be embedded within objects.
  • Captures motion up to 10,000 frames per second, much more accurate than camera-based systems.
  • Can shrink the radar into a tiny chip, so it is very hard to break because it has no lenses or moving parts.

Limitations - As displays shrink, interacting with devices becomes increasingly difficult.

Competition - Gesture-based controls are not new, but all of the others rely on cameras for motion-tracking, which limits the effectiveness and accuracy of the device.

Future - has been mainly introduced in the context of Smartwatches. Not limited to wearables; it can be embedded in almost any type of device, including objects that don't have a traditional display.

Muse Brain Sensing Headband

http://www.choosemuse.com/

PROXIMITY

Estimote

https://estimote.com/products/#SoftwareSolution. Think about what can be learned from location data that can be time-stamped. Things like proximity between people places and things, cross referenced with emotional data could provide powerful information for teachers.

Beacons

Beacons are small, rock-like shaped, wireless sensors. They can be attached to any location or object, while broadcasting low-energy Bluetooth to your smart phone. Your smart phone is prompted with a message or alert, using micro-locaton and contextual awareness.

Issues: Accuracy, if we do one signal from 10 feet away and another from 2 feet. Also if there are too many beacons in too small of a space, they will interfere with each other.

Hoverwatch GPS Tracking

Hoverwatch is a program that uses a cellphone to track location. Both GPS system and the signals from Wi-Fi spots closest to the target device can be used as the sources of data to track phone location. The signal obtained with the help of GPS is highly accurate. While the signal received using Wi-Fi spots is less exact but requires less battery power. Even if the user has turned off both GPS and Wi-Fi on the target device, the software is still able to track cell phone location with the help of known cell phone towers (GSM).